Doyle ordered to swear there is only one ‘Playboy’ script

Novelist Roddy Doyle has been ordered by a High Court judge to provide a sworn statement that he only has one version of a play he allegedly co-wrote with a man who is suing him and the Abbey Theatre in a row over alleged copyright infringement.

Mr Justice Michael Hanna said he did not understand why Mr Doyle had not made this clear in a document he provided in his defence of an action by dramatist Bisi Adigun against the Abbey and the novelist over a modern version of Playboy of the Western World. In the modern play, the main character, Christy Mahon, is a Nigerian asylum-seeker.

The judge was speaking when ruling in favour of an application by Mr Adigun seeking that Mr Doyle disclose the alleged second Playboy script. The novelist had “no excuse” for not making it clear he did not have a second version when he swore an affidavit in response to Mr Adigun’s application for discovery of documents, the judge said.